Saturday, January 1, 2011

The Infamous Chicken

Today I taught Joshua how to tell a joke.

“Why did the chicken cross the road?  To get to the other side.”  I laughed appropiately as I walked him through the two crucial steps of telling a joke: question and answer.

A small smile flickered across his face when he realized that he had ‘made me laugh.'  He told it again.  I laughed and his smile got bigger.  Then he got creative.

“Why did the kitty cat cross the road?”

“Why did the lion cross the road?”

“Why did the cow cross the road?”

Etc.

I was starting to wonder if this was such a good idea.  Fake laughing is hard work.  Not that it wasn't funny or cute, but definitely not a ten-star kinda funny.

John came back to the van and I got a break.  Joshua tried his joke out on Daddy.  John laughed, of course, and Joshua was quiet for a minute while we thanked God for the food and distributed it.  And proceeded to tell the joke again.  Then, in a confident-take-charge kind of voice, “Okay.  Why did the kitty cat cross the road?”  The ‘okay’ did us in.  We laughed so hard.

He’s been telling the joke all day.  He had to phone Grandma; then tell Papa Jim; my grandparents called and he had to tell them.  He tried for Uncle Derek, but he wasn’t home.  He called John at work.  We went through quite a lengthy session ourselves, here at home.  

While we were coloring at the table after dinner this evening, he drew a chicken crossing the road.  I drew one, too, and when I finished, he said “I want you to draw another funny joke.”  While I continued to add details to my picture, he asked me a question to which I absently replied, “Yesireebob!”  (Side note: Can you believe that word just made it past my spell checker?!- Okay, never mind, it just took a minute.)  Joshua put his serious face on and said, “Bob, I’m just drawing something right now.”  For the rest of the night, he called me Bob.  “Bob, what color are you doing?”  “Is that for me, Bob?”  “Bob, I just have to draw a funny joke.”  He even drew a picture of “Bob.”  He...er--She?...ME???  was a brown circle. 

My brain is running out of juice and John just got home from work early- I didn't get his email, so it's a both a pleasant surprise and the perfect reason to end this blog post without a real ending.

2 comments:

Amanda Quiring said...

Doesn't need a proper ending. Just a glimpse into the cuteness that keeps you laughing is enough. Love it.

When my brother, David, was little he learned that joke and asked, "Why did the chicken cross the road?" and when we asked, "Why?" his response was, "To eat a snake." We have no clue where he got that from as a response, but we all cracked up and still say the joke that way to this day.

Anonymous said...

HAHAHH this is an awesome post Ashley!!!

-luvs angela